Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-06-24
THE SECOND VERtIOST.


Ine reunion III TINS Guy iGe,Gay
MEMORANDUM OF THE SECOND VERMONT.
Heroes of more than IS pitched battles
and no end of skirmishes, commencing al
, Bull Run, Va, July2l 1861. and ending at
Sailors Creek, Va, 1865, including the
Peninsula, Maryland and Frederick sburg
campaigns of 1SG2-the fredericksburg
Charlottesville, Gettysburg and Mine
Run campaigns of 1sG3-W Wilderness,
Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg
and Shenandoah Valley campaigns of 1864
and the campaign before Petersburg, in
which they (the Vermont brigade) iired
the last shot at Sailors Greek, Va, ia 1860.
is n record second to none. The greatest
| loss in any one battle was that of the sec
ond regiment at the Wilderness in MAY,
1864. This get from Col. Benedict, our
state historian, who, in his admirable
| book, which every one should re adj reports
your number engaged about 90, killed
and MORALLY wounded, - wounded, POS
missing, 81 total. 291
This terrible 9Th OF May is the tina that
| the old brigade lost 1000 men while hold
ing Longstrpets and HIPS corps on the
| Orange plank road, some 400 or j0J yards
beyond the intersection Of the same and
the Brock road, so that Hancock's corps
could form on the Brock road Your reg
| iment lost the most men from Vermont IN
killed and wounded during the war.
Namely, killed l3S. wounded Glib. OF the
| wounded some So died of the wounds
and if you put this under the head
OF killed and morally wounded, the fig
ures would be 220 killed and mOrtallv
wounded, and 52l less severely wounded
| This is a great and terrible showing The
| largest aggregate ever reported present
for duty was SIG. Isuppose that you might
have nad from first to last 1000 or 100
men under fire. AS near as can be made
out, the regiment lost between 10 and 80 per
cent in killed and wounded i doubt if many
regiments in the Union army can show
such a record and it is eight times the
ratio of killed aud mOrtaiy wounded of
the average Union regiments. There il
so much to say about the Second regiment
that | hardly dare to 90 any further for
fear that shall talk too long, aud still
you will pardon me if | say, one great
reason they did so we'll was ON accoun; of
the splendid material in officers and in
the rank and file. For instance, that
grand old warrior, Gen. Staunard (peace
To his ashes whose record is eXcelled by
none, was your lieutenant colonel, | had
the honor of being Il private under bin
when he was colonel of the Ninth re-;
ment (and the privates you know are al
most all gomez He was continually tell
ing us, if we would only do half as well rs
the old Second regiment. that was all he
would ask. Said he you can drill rs
well they can, but they are the greatest
lighters l ever saw | believe that the
Ninth regiment, though one of the most
uni fortunate regiments that left the State,
Is kind of relative Of yours tor Stannard
came to us, and then our little doctor
Surgeon b. w. Carpenter was your assist
ant surgeon TO the end of the Peninsula
campaign, and you and know that there
was never Drawer or better little man
than he.
Look at the record of officers, commence
ing, as | said, with Stannard, then Joyce,
Walbridge, Stone and Tyler (who sacri-
feed their lives for their country Tracy,
Enoch johnson, Wales, Clark, the grand
whose towering form carried your
colors through so many battles,
and who seemed to bear charmed
life, and who came home with
the rank of captain and brevet ma jOr, then
Bixby, Bailey and Morey (who were kill
ED Hurlburt, Bnllou, Cady, Cole, Balm,
Weed, Philip Chase, Bridgman, Hight.
Adjutant Ray, who is the honored county
clerk of this county, and is still in the ser
vice as senior vice commander of Stan
nard Post No. ., g. A. r.. of this city, aud
also that noble hearted man and gallant
soldier, Gen Henry, who was a first lieu
tenant in your regiment, and still com
mands us citizens as mayor of Burlington,
then again, the Second regiment had our
last mayor, Col |. A. Woodbury. (who
was good one) and who has the proud
and most honorable privilege of wearing
the first empty sleeve from Vermont,
which was the result of the wound re-
ceived at the first battle of Bull Run
while serving as first sergeant of Company
ii, Second Vermont. While giving YOU
the names of these gallant men, | would
say that they are only representatives of
your whole regiment, officers and privates,
many of whose bones are now resting
in Southern soil, | do wish to mention the
names of a few of the boys who fought
aud suffered all through the war in the
ranks, for instance, such men rs Sergt-
Major Paddock Utford of Fairfax who
was killed in the Wilderness, Sergt James
\. Williams, Comrade Downs and Au-
drew Noyce of Company A, Private
George w. Colby of Company ID.
Sergeant George w. Flagg (who was af-
terward made lieutenanD l.. ID. Savage
and w. W; ,Noyes of Company f, Oliver
Garrow, Thomas Sharpley, Corporal +.
Payson Gibbs (killed in the Wilderness)
brother to our cavalry friend Hon. War
rem Gibbs, editor of St. Adams Messen-
ger, sergeant j. Seely Spaulding and
Alonzo X. Spear and the Tilley brothers
of Company &, Corporal Leroy NJ Bng-
years of age and now resides In this city,
and is to-day leading physician in the
State, and has served four years as sur
geon-general of the State of Vermont,
| sergeant Horatlo +. Taylor, Company |,
who was afterward captain, and George
| Wilkins of Company X. These are only a
few of all of the noble, gallant men that
served in your ranks. | consider that
Comrade Noyes, at the "bloody ange'' at
Spottsylyania, performed rs gallant ser
vice as have ever heard of, in any Udr.
this was on the afternoon OF the 18th of
May, 1864, after Hancock's men had car
rled the salient, captured Confederate
| Generals Johnston aud stuart with some
1000 men and 30 stand of colors, and had
advanced to the second line, when the
confederates were REINFORCED and drove
them back to the first line and the troops
of both armies had nothing between them
except the earthworks and the soldiers
fought, firing over the works, punching
each other with bayonets, and using every
kind of weapon that could be effective,
and Private Noyes got up on top of the
works that afternoon and fired some 80
rounds from muskets that were loaded by
the boys and handed up to him. How he
| escaped with his life | do not know Dut